Mythological roles
Each player in Sburb has a mythological role which consists of two components: a class and an aspect. A title can be assembled from any combination of class and aspect: John is the Heir (class) of Breath (aspect), while Tavros shares his aspect as the Page (class) of Breath (aspect) and Equius shares his class as the Heir (class) of Void (aspect). Aspects are a form of generalized "elements", in that they are primal forces of reality. Classes describe mechanics and intended roles, "channeling" the aspect into possible action and powers. Classes come in active (-) and passive (+) pairs, which can mean multiple things but roughly described as the active classes employing or affecting their aspect directly and for their own gain, and the passive classes being affected by their aspect, and sharing their actions with the team. In short, aspects describe a type of power that a player would have and classes describe how the power manifests itself. Do note though that literal interpretation of the aspects' and classes' names is misleading, i.e. "Prince" actually means "destroyer", and "Light" means "fortune". Heroes with different aspects can end up with very similar powers depending on their class. The Life and Doom aspects may be radically different, but depending on the class their powers may end up being similar. Player abilities may also manifest in ways contrary to their aspect if they are " " Rose Lalonde is the of this. Other examples can be constructed, but remain speculative due to exposition on the class and aspect system being sporadic. The terms " " or "Player" can be used in lieu of the class when the speaker wishes to be generic, i.e.: John and Tavros are "Heroes of Breath" and Roxy is "a Void player." Both components of the title appear to have some mechanical effect on the game, depending on the class or element assigned. The salamanders of the Land of Crypts and Helium and the B2 Carapacians use the term "Noble" to refer to their Heroes, possibly implying that Nobles suffer and become martyrs, rather than saving others as a Hero might. Sburb may design planets with the titles in mind. For the kids one part seems to come from their aspect, while the other comes from their associated element, or a force actively opposing it (dark clouds in John's case and frost in Jade's). The trolls' planets mostly relate to their interests, but some show a clear connection to their titles. implies that every session will have a Hero of Time, so as to provide access to a Scratch Construct should the players irreparably fail. Because their amphibian ectobreeding duties are necessary for victory, Heroes of Space are also a constant in the game. Calliope has confirmed that these two aspects are indeed the minimum requirement for a session to not inherently be a Null session or worse. The only exception seen is potentially with the post-scratch kids, who, though they lack both Time and Space players and as a result lack a frog planet or scratch construct, through cosmic consequence their session anticipates the arrival of their pre-scratch players, with all their planets in tow, creating an effective 8 player session that does include a Space and Time player. There are at least two rare classes referred to as "master classes". One, the Muse, is "the most passive class" and strictly for females. Its counterpart, Lord, is the male master class and the most active class. It is entirely possible that the number of players in a given session will determine what titles the game can and will assign. It appears games with four or more eliminates the chance to receive master classes, which may serve the purpose of fulfilling multiple roles in under-populated games. Character titles and related data Key: *A background indicates a passive class. *A background indicates an active class. *A background indicates a Derse dreamer. *A background indicates a Prospit dreamer. *A background indicates two dream selves. Humans Trolls Cherubs Sprite fusions Due to sprites being able to be prototyped with two components and the ability for players to be prototyped, it is therefore possible for two individuals with separate titles to be merged together. The nature of the mythological roles of such fusions is unknown. It is possible the two separate titles continue to exist simultaneously and unaltered in the sprites. Potential alterations include: The two classes and two aspects exist with each other in a way to represent all four title combinations of those classes and aspects simultaneously, or a recombination of the two titles where the class or aspect is swapped to create two new titles, or that only a single class and a single aspect remain. Speculation *In , Kanaya speculates that Skaia assigns titles to players to challenge them, rather than to suit their strengths. **This would certainly explain some of the apparent inversions, such as Rose being the Seer of Light despite her fascination with darkness and horror, and Jade's title as the Witch of Space despite her life never leaving her small island and in Skaia's Oracle Clouds. However, this theory should be taken with a grain of salt, considering that the titles of a lot of the players match them perfectly. **It would also explain the post-scratch kid's aspects as said it " ". *It could be speculated that players are meant to "grow into" their roles; that is, when they first begin the session their title and its duties force them outside their comfort zone and seem very unsuited, but a fully realized Hero has matured into the role the game has assigned them. *It is Calliope's power as the Muse of Space may be the power to physically influence all that she imagines in the form of fanfics and artwork. Trivia *According to Andrew Hussie, other characters have also assumed these titles: **Nicolas Cage is the . **FedoraFreak is the . **Dennis's bro would have been the . **Hussie is(n't) the . ***Hussie does indeed have a Hero of Space outfit, but he has that it was just a cosplay, and while many fans had been calling the god tier Waste of Space, the class name was never actually revealed. *In Problem Sleuth, Problem Sleuth obtains the title by saving a universe. It is the only known "mythological role" outside of Homestuck. *It could be that the title of is related to Caliborn's echeladder, as it bears a similitude with John's final echeladder rung, Heir Transparent. *Muse of Space almost literally translates to "fondly regard creation". *Fitting the common theme of playing cards in Homestuck, a player's aspect could be analogous to a card's suit, and their class could be analogous to its rank, based on the format of cards' names and players' titles. (ex: Prince of Heart, Jack of Hearts). *All of the post-scratch trolls share their aspect (but not their class) with their pre-scratch counterparts. Notably, this is not true of the human players. *All of the post-scratch humans 'inherited' both their aspect and class from (different) post-scratch trolls who permanently died before their session began, with the sole exception of Jane inheriting the Maid class from the living-but-absent Aradia. This is presumably to ensure diversity among the active cast. *In Namco High, the Cousin is pseudo-canonically an Heir of Heart. Category:Homestuck concepts